GASTRONOMY OF THE ANCIENT VILLAGE
Lucca is not only a place of history, art and countryside, of markets and popular festivals, but also home to the great gastronomy which as resumed a role of great interest for the visitor who also wants to taste traditional Tuscan cuisine.
There are many examples of local cuisine and some of these, even if they are of extremely old origin, retain intact their preparation, both as far as the ingredients are concerned, and the way in which they were cooked once upon a time.

Here are some examples:
“Bruschetta” or “fettunta”, is a slice of homemade bread, brushed when still warm with good quality oil, salt and touch of garlic.
“Panzanella”, an extremely old summer salad, prepared with stale bread, tomatoes, onion, basil, salt, oil and vinegar; naturally, there are many variations as far as the ingredients are concerned.
“Farro minestrone”, the farro is prepared with a particular type of wheat, cooked in a bean broth, flavoured with vegetables and pancetta.
The “zuppa frantoiana”, a soup which is prepared with many types of vegetables, flavoured with slices of homemade bread, seasoned with freshly produced oil from the mill; this is where the name of the soup comes from, which used to be prepared in the actual mills to celebrate and taste the new oil.
The “tortelli” are essential for the most important feasts; a pasta, filled with meat or ricotta and spinach, seasoned with a meat sauce or simply with butter and sage.
The “artista” is a piece of pig loin with meat, fillet or sirloin, cooked in a variety of ways: alla fiorentina, cooked in the oven, with potatoes, or in a saucepan stewed with milk, to name but a few of the many ways of cooking this very tasty cut of meat.
“Florentine steak”, famous throughout the world for the simplicity of the way it is cooked on the grill, which allows all flavours of the meat to be retained.
“Steamed wild boar”, tasty chunks of wild boar meat with olives and tomatoes, goes extremely well with yellow flour polenta.
“Buccellato di Lucca”, an extremely simple dessert, with aniseed aroma and ancient origins, to be eaten with milk at breakfast or in the evening, sliced and toasted, with Nutella spread upon it.
“Necci con la ricotta”, exquisite pancakes made with sugar and chestnut flour, with fresh ricotta or stracchino cheese inside.
“Castagnaccio” also uses chestnut flour, which was once one of the poorest ingredients around. This cake is baked in the oven and scented with pine seeds and rosemary.

These are just some of the many delicious traditional dishes from the Tuscan gastronomy, but you could go on listing them forever: lard spread on toasted bread, the cecina, a savoury cake made from corn flour, Florentine tripe, once considered the food of peasants, today prepared by the best restaurants in Tuscany, the “brigidini di Lamporecchio” or the “cantucci di Prato” with dessert wine (vin santo) and many, many other delightful things.

In “BORGO ANTICO” you will come on holiday not only to enjoy the sun, the nature and having a well earned break after a year’s work, but you will also appreciate the fine Tuscan and Lucchese cuisine, bearing in mind that you can understand the culture of a town or country, above all through the discovery of its gastronomic traditions.